The Guard Dog started as an innovative approach for teaching English Language Arts to 6th graders in the Spanish Immersion Program by using the framework of a journalism workshop. In its second year, the newspaper has been opened up to the entire student body as part of the after-school Newspaper Club.
The Newspaper Club meets on Wednesdays after school from 3:45-4:30pm in Room 108. It is open to all students to drop by to see what being a JLMS reporter or editor for The Guard Dog is all about!
My name is Evangeline, though some call me "Evie". I am currently in seventh grade and in the Spanish Immersion Program at JLMS. Last year I had Ms. Dicharry as my English teacher. Ms. Dicharry had turned my English class to a journalism class (as she might have for some of you sixth graders). Who know journalism could be so fun? Last year I was part of the newspaper team as an editor. I loved being on the newspaper so much that I couldn't leave going to the afterschool meetings out of my schedule. Last year, as some of you might know, was the first year James Lick had a newspaper. This is now the second year I've worked on the newspaper, where I am now the Editor-in-Chief this year.
I can't express how grateful I am to keep working on the James Lick newspaper, The Guard Dog. I remember voting on what the newspaper's name should be. I think that some of the answers were (Ms. Dicharry, correct me if I'm wrong) "The Bulldogs", "The Bulldog Train", and some other options that I don't remember. Last year, since it was the first year having a newspaper, the newspaper wasn't the neatest it could be. We had some articles that never made it onto the website, some articles weren't edited properly, and some people didn't actually finish articles. Also, the sport scores were not up-to-date as they should have been. The calendar was empty and didn't list school events such as Back-To-School Night or the Halloween dance and other fun events like that (if you can call Back-To-School Night fun). This year, I hope to help the newspaper be more organized so that the newspaper can be more interesting. We are also taking articles from you guys: they can be opinion pieces, comics, informative, folktales, and any other kind of writing that I am missing.
When writing articles for The Guard Dog, please make sure you are not plagiarizing from websites. If we find evidence that you have been plagiarizing, we will not be able to publish the article onto the newspaper. One way to make sure you are not plagiarizing, is to choose a topic you know about without having to look up every word you write. Another way to make sure you are not copying other people's writing illegally, is that you can add footnotes to the bottom of the page and cite where you got your information. This way you can write about something you don't entirely know all of the facts that you want to write about it. Footnotes allow you to take information from sites legally, since the footnotes says where you got the information from.
Ok. Now that we're done with that, I hope that this year's newspaper will be a success, even more of a success than last year.
Click on the above icon to visit the JLMS student newspaper.
What Are We Doing and When Are We Doing It?
In Ms. Dicharry's English class for 6th graders in the Spanish Immersion Program and after school on Wednesdays when it's open to everyone, we are busy in the newsroom writing on a bunch of crazy, funny, and interesting articles for The Guard Dog.
The Guard Dog is looking for breaking JLMS news, articles about the world around us, and anything else students might want to read about.
What Is the Point of Having a Newspaper?
The point of having a newspaper is to let teachers, students, and parents know what is happening at JLMS and what is on students' minds.
Why Did Ms. Dicharry Start The Guard Dog?
How and Where Do We Do It Online?
We started with SNO, a free website for school newspapers that helps us stay all organized. We start by writing an article on our drive and the we move it to the newspaper's folder. From there we can easily move stuff from the folder to the SNO site where we do final edits and publish. We can do things through Google sheets for graphs or stats or Google presentation for slides and we can just type a regular article with Google docs.
Attention students! Our online newspaper, The Guard Dog, is continuing this year and we want input from you! Email your class projects to Ms. Dicharry for publication in the paper, things like biographies, research projects, opinions, and short stories would be great. Or use some free time to write articles or comics for The Guard Dog. And don't forget to visit our website to read what other students are writing about.
If students are willing, teachers can send Ms. Dicharry electronic copies of class projects to be published in The Guard Dog. Also, please encourage students to write content for the newspaper, to read the newspaper in their free time, and to think about joining the after-school newspaper club. Ms. Dicharry can also put flyers in your teacher mailbox in the office with more information on how to get your class involved. We would also love articles from teachers! Thanks in advance for supporting The Guard Dog.